New transcoding HD Homerun now available for pre-order!

[dgalvan123]

This thing is finally shipping this week. After having pre-ordered back on October 31, 2013, I just got an order confirmation and my card was charged today (Jan 20, 2014).

Guess I'll start looking into how I can use MythTV to take advantage of the transcoding feature. Without that, the only new feature compared to the HDHR3 is DLNA support, which I don't need.

 

[dgalvan123]

I have now received that new transcoding HDHR device and am experimenting with it to replace my HDHR3 Dual unit.

-EyeTV does not support it, but others on the silicon dust forums have said they can get EyeTV to recognize the new device (the "HD Homerun Plus"). However, I did not have success with that when I tried it last night. Have an open question to silicon dust on how to get EyeTV to see it.

-It is possible to manually record a channel from the PLUS using its onboard transcoding capability using the terminal: using wget commands like this:

Wget 30 minute recording of channel 5.1:
wget http://<device ip>:5004/auto/v5.1?transcode=mobile\&duration=1800

See this thread for more details on this.
http://www.silicondust.com/forum2/viewtopic.php?f=68&t=16430

 

[2010mini]

I have now received that new transcoding HDHR device and am experimenting with it to replace my HDHR3 Dual unit.

-EyeTV does not support it, but others on the silicon dust forums have said they can get EyeTV to recognize the new device (the "HD Homerun Plus"). However, I did not have success with that when I tried it last night. Have an open question to silicon dust on how to get EyeTV to see it.

-It is possible to manually record a channel from the PLUS using its onboard transcoding capability using the terminal: using wget commands like this:

Wget 30 minute recording of channel 5.1:
wget http://<device ip>:5004/auto/v5.1?transcode=mobile\&duration=1800

See this thread for more details on this.
http://www.silicondust.com/forum2/viewtopic.php?f=68&t=16430

Update?

 

[dgalvan123]

Update?

The device they sent me had a hardware problem which prevented it from reliably appearing on my network. Contacted SiliconDust support and they told me to send it back to them (at their expense via UPS ground). They said they would send me a replacement unit. My returned unit was delivered to them this past Tuesday. Still waiting on the replacement unit.

My (presumably unusual) technical issues aside, you should check out the silicon dust forums where there are lots of people posting on successful uses of this device.
http://www.silicondust.com/forum2/viewforum.php?f=68&sid=9945805836e18875ba59910843870f70

 

[dgalvan123]

The latest firmware update enables use of EyeTV to record transcoded video streams via the HD Homerun Plus!

Woo hoo!

The latest firmware release can be found here:
viewtopic.php?f=19&t=2484

Changelog for HDHomeRun PLUS Firmware:
* Support transcoded recording in Windows Media Center (WIndows 7/8).
* Support transcoded recording in EyeTV (Mac).
* Support transcoded recording in MythTV (Linux).
* Transcode improvements.
* Fan management improvements.
* DLNA - signal content changes when favorites list or configuration changes.

To enable transcoded recordings in WMC/EyeTV/MythTV go to the device webpage, Transcode Configuration page, and set the Default Transcode Profile to the desired profile.

http://www.silicondust.com/forum2/viewtopic.php?f=68&t=16576

 

[2010mini]

The latest firmware update enables use of EyeTV to record transcoded video streams via the HD Homerun Plus!

Woo hoo!



http://www.silicondust.com/forum2/viewtopic.php?f=68&t=16576

Nice. Let us know how it works getting the recorded shows into itunes and Apple TV.

 

[dgalvan123]

Nice. Let us know how it works getting the recorded shows into itunes and Apple TV.

Another user has apparently got the "mobile" transcoded recordings (720p, 30fps) to play on the Apple TV. Even when transcoded by the HDTC-2US, there is apparently an issue because that transcoded file uses AC3 audio, which Apple TV does not support. But the user posting in the silicon dust forums has had success with using ffmpeg to convert the AC3 audio in the transcoded file, which only takes a couple of minutes for a 30 minute video (while doing a full mpeg2 to h264 conversion tends to take an hour or more).

So, it sounds like the procedure will be:
1. Use hardware transcoding from the HDTC-2US unit to produce an H264 recording.
2. Use ffmpeg to convert the audio of that file (a process that takes far less time than it would take to do the video transcoding)
3. Now the file should be iTunes compatible and playable on Apple TV.

See below.

ffmpeg -i inputfilenamefromhdhr.ts -map 0:0 -map 0:1 -map 0:1 -c:v copy -c:a:0 libfaac -b:a 192k -ac 2 -scodec copy -c:a:1 copy outputfilename.m4v

I just recorded a 30 minute 720p 30fps "mobile" file and used the aforementioned ffmpeg command line option and it took 2.5 minutes at 10% CPU on my quad core to create the resulting m4v file. I suspect most people watching on AppleTV will be running it through comskip or showanalyzer and tagging it anyhow. So at least the heavy lifting (h.264 encode) is done on the HDHR hardware.

I have tested the output on both Apple TV 2 and Apple TV 3 and they work. I've decided to not bother trying to convert the 1080i/60fps "heavy" format because I still have 720p only apple tvs.

http://www.silicondust.com/forum2/viewtopic.php?f=68&t=16449

 

[2010mini]

Another user has apparently got the "mobile" transcoded recordings (720p, 30fps) to play on the Apple TV. Even when transcoded by the HDTC-2US, there is apparently an issue because that transcoded file uses AC3 audio, which Apple TV does not support. But the user posting in the silicon dust forums has had success with using ffmpeg to convert the AC3 audio in the transcoded file, which only takes a couple of minutes for a 30 minute video (while doing a full mpeg2 to h264 conversion tends to take an hour or more).

So, it sounds like the procedure will be:
1. Use hardware transcoding from the HDTC-2US unit to produce an H264 recording.
2. Use ffmpeg to convert the audio of that file (a process that takes far less time than it would take to do the video transcoding)
3. Now the file should be iTunes compatible and playable on Apple TV.

See below.



http://www.silicondust.com/forum2/viewtopic.php?f=68&t=16449

I wonder if an automater can be used to do all the steps and use a tagging program and them load into itunes?

 

[balticgreen]

The latest firmware update enables use of EyeTV to record transcoded video streams via the HD Homerun Plus!

Woo hoo!

Oh, excellent! I looked into this Homerun before but I sort of expected it to be a while before EyeTV would support the transcoding. I need to look into this again.

 

[dgalvan123]

Latest development:

EyeTV CAN, in fact, handle the pre-transcoded recordings from the HD Homerun Plus. You just need to go to the device configuration page and turn on transcoding. EyeTV will treat the H.264 stream just like an mpeg2 stream, but if you drill down inside the recording in the .eyetv package, you will see the transport stream is indeed an H.264 format video.

But. BUT! This recording is still not suitable for playing on Apple TV or in iTunes, because it has an AC3 audio track, whereas Apple needs AAC. So you still need to do an audio-only transcode before it is playable on AppleTV.

SiliconDust people have stated they are working with Dolby in order to get the rights to have the Plus unit output an H.264 stream with AAC audio instead of AC3. If they get permission, there will be a firmware update that enables this. At that point, the "export" function of EyeTV should become nearly instantaneous.

http://www.silicondust.com/forum2/viewforum.php?f=68

 

[dgalvan123]

Update:

It's working now on the mobile profile! No further transcoding required to get the recorded shows into iTunes! Woohoo!

-If you use the "mobile" transcode profile provided by the HD Homerun Plus when recording shows to EyeTV, then EyeTV does NOT NEED TO TRANSCODE THE VIDEO when it exports the recording to iTunes.
-This means that when you click EyeTV's "export to iTunes" button that looks like an Apple TV with a "720p" on it, at the top of the EyeTV GUI window, it will take between 2 and 3 minutes for EyeTV to "export" it to iTunes. Since it is not transcoding the video during this process, I presume that it is taking that 2-3 minutes to transcode only the audio (from AC3 delivered by the Plus to the AAC required by iTunes).

This is FAR LESS TIME than it would take to transcode the video, since the Plus has already done that for you. That's the dream! (at least, it was my primary reason for purchasing the Plus).

It is working great for me right now: My recordings are ready to watch on both my Apple TVs within 3 minutes of the end of the show.

I am still interested in SiliconDust obtaining the rights to output AAC from the Plus, however, as the higher quality "heavy" transcode profile does not export as easily when recorded with EyeTV. Using the "heavy" profile requires a full video transcode to export the recording to iTunes, something I verified by testing yesterday. Not sure why, but I'm hoping the audio change fixes that. . .though I don't understand why it would.

That is:
With "mobile" transcode profile, EyeTV takes 2-3 minutes to export a 1 hour high-definition recording to iTunes.
With "heavy" transcode profile, EyeTV takes ~2 hours to export a 1 hour high-definition recording to iTunes.

(This is on my 2009 Macbook Pro Intel Core 2 Duo 2.8 GHz)

You can change the Plus's transcode profile from "none" to "heavy" or "mobile" on the device configuration page, which you can get to by putting the device's IP address in your computer's web browser.

See the following threads on the SiliconDust forums for details:

http://www.silicondust.com/forum2/viewtopic.php?f=68&t=16754
http://www.silicondust.com/forum2/viewtopic.php?f=68&t=16842

 

[balticgreen]

I really appreciate your updates on this. I'm waiting until all of this audio stuff is sorted out to make any purchasing decisions, but I am following along.

 

[JPM]

I wonder if an automater can be used to do all the steps and use a tagging program and them load into itunes?

Yes, you can automate it with Applescript and command-line tools like ffmpeg and the mp4v2 library. That's what I do. I even have a nice clean-up script that auto-deletes watched shows. 🙂

But. BUT! This recording is still not suitable for playing on Apple TV or in iTunes, because it has an AC3 audio track, whereas Apple needs AAC. So you still need to do an audio-only transcode before it is playable on AppleTV.

AppleTV should handle a file with only AC3 just fine. It passes AC3 through and lets the receiver/TV decode it. However, you are correct in that other iDevices require the AAC track.

 

[Richdmoore]

Good first steps

Good first steps for getting this working. I wish that eyetv supported cablecard playback however, with the death of Clearqam starting to occur in various cable systems.

I think the ultimate solution is a transcoding cablecard device, supported by eyetv or a new pvr software, with remote (Internet) viewing via an app. It will take time for all the pieces to fall into place however.

 

[2010mini]

has Silicon Dust gotten the rights to Dolby Digital yet?

 

[hipnetic]

I'll check in on the SiliconDust forums, but can you provide your thoughts as to how this new box is doing in terms of overall quality? Does the "best" mode (whatever that's called) provide picture quality comparable to the older PRIME unit's native decoding of high-def MPEG2 content?

Right now, I've got 2 PRIME units and Windows 7 Media Center, and I pretty much just watch TV recordings on a couple of additional TVs in my house via Xbox 360's acting as Media Center Extenders. I also have Plex Media Server installed on my main computer and have experimented with using a Plex client (e.g., on my iPhone) to play back TV content I've recorded. This actually works really well, but I honestly never find myself needing to do this.

The main issue with this for me with the Plex approach is that you have to wait for the TV shows to fully complete recording, and for Plex Media Server to get around to noticing that the show has finished recording, and then do its metadata lookup thing. If you're the type that keeps your TV shows around for a long time, this can still be a nice solution, but for me, I watch my TV recordings once, and then let them roll off (i.e., get deleted automatically when WMC needs the space for new recordings).

The other downside to the Plex approach is that you want a fairly capable computer to be able to handle the on-the-fly transcoding that is necessary to record these high-def MPEG2 TV shows to a format that the iPhone can digest.

 

[2010mini]

Update?

 

[dgalvan123]

Update:
The system has been working well for me for a while now.

I've been sporadically checking the silicon dust forums, but any talk about the Dolby rights issue has sort of faded away. Frankly, I no longer have a strong interest in whether that happens, as the "mobile" transcode profile seems to be working just fine for me.

In other words:

-I use the "mobile" transcode profile, which gives me good-looking 720p pre-transcoded recordings in EyeTV, which only take 2-3 minutes to "export" to iTunes so they are viewable almost immediately after being recorded without tasking my computer's CPU to do any video transcoding.

-Reliability:
I'd say roughly 10% of the recordings end up having some issue where the exported version (the version that ends up in iTunes) is unwatchable for some reason (ex: either "jittery" or all black with audio only). That is, the recording in EyeTV is perfectly watchable, but when you click export the resulting version in iTunes/AppleTV is not watchable. This is annoying, but rare enough that I haven't made the effort to investigate or bug SD to get it fixed. (That said, it appears I haven't updated my firmware on the Plus in several months, so maybe there is a fix.)
Anyway, when this happens (again, I'd estimate only 10% of the time), I just end up playing the video in EyeTV on my mac and using AirParrot to Airplay mirror my mac's screen to the Apple TV. (I sometimes use the Mobile Mouse app on my iPhone to control my mac from the bed/couch, so I can still fast-forward through the commercials.)

Bottom line:
-I'd say there shouldn't be any hangups that keep people from getting this unit. It has all the features of the regular HDHR Dual model with the added benefit of transcoding so that your mac doesn't have to work so hard to transcode for iTunes.
-While the issues that occur during the export from EyeTV to iTunes can be annoying, they are not show-stoppers and only happen ~10% of the time. So I live with them. SD can only do so much on its end, since Elgato (the company that makes the EyeTV software) officially doesn't support this hardware unit. But it meets my needs. (The non-EyeTV option on a mac is MythTV, and there is a growing community of users of that open source program, but from what I can tell I am much better off using EyeTV given the hassle that apparently comes with getting Myth working.)

In terms of fulfilling the role of providing cable-free DVR functionality for my family:
The fact that more and more episodes of TV shows are now available to stream to the Apple TV in other ways means that the 10% of the time the exporting does not work can also be taken care of by: 1.) finding the episode on one of the built-in Apple TV apps (ex: FoxNOW), 2.) just using airplay to watch EyeTV on the Apple TV, 3.) streaming an episode from an iphone/ipad app and air playing THAT to the Apple TV. Having multiple "backup options" does make it easy to deal with the occasional hiccup. But having the recording in iTunes is always preferable since you can easily skip the commercials.